They have fled war-torn countries, given up livelihoods, and left behind possessions and family for the safety of a foreign world of cowboy hats and Walmarts. But the refugees who land in Amarillo’s Astoria Park have an ally who understands their confusion and loss: a 64-year-old former teacher named Miss
Dorothy Hood was one of Texas’s greatest artists, yet her work remains largely unknown. Now, sixteen years after her death, can her fans bring her the acclaim she never received in life?
They were some of the toughest narcs on the border, known for busting smugglers, staging raids, seizing cartel cocaine—and being dirty.
To whom will the Bachelorette’s final rose go this season? Blogger Steve Carbone makes it his business to know—and tell his 1.5 million readers.
He was a pioneering music journalist at 'Texas Monthly,' but he was also so much more.
Sandy Jenkins was a quiet accountant at the Collin Street Bakery who felt overlooked and dreamed of living the good life. He found it (for a while) by embezzling nearly $17 million from the famed fruitcake maker.
This past year, China surpassed all other foreign countries in terms of properties purchased and dollars spent. And with increasing frequency, investors are coming to the Houston area, which now has a Chinese population of 86,000.
Life and learning in the smallest school district in Texas.
He wasn’t diplomatic and he wasn’t subtle, but Curtis Graves forged a political path for black Texans—and altered history forever.
Alyssa Michalke was recently named the first female commander of Texas A&M’s corps of cadets. It’s been a long time coming.
Jeff Boswell will find your dream spread.
Eight-year-old Giovanni and six-year-old Victor can ride the Globe of Death, spin plates, and transfix large audiences. As the eighth generation of the Flores Family Thrill Show, it’s their birthright.
When throngs of shoe fanatics descend on Houston for the annual Sneaker Summit, it’s the perfect time to understand the sole of a man. And if you happen to be a high school junior named Adam, the goal is finding the right pair of Nike Galaxies for a mere $750.
Texas Monthly writers Katy Vine and Sonia Smith watched "Outlaw Prophet," the new Lifetime movie based on the life of FLDS leader, and it was actually pretty good.
The rise and fall of David Renk, one of the few Americans to become a matador.
Every year, some of Mexico’s very best matadors travel to a remote South Texas bullring—one of the few in this country—for no-kill fights. Their pageantry draws spectators by the busload.
Plan a kid-friendly summertime weekend through this historic city by the sea using this guide with tips on what to do, where to eat, and where to stay.
A carefully designed, kid-friendly romp through a historic city by the sea.
How did rapper Bun B become Houston’s unofficial mayor?
At 94 years old, debate icon Thomas Freeman has taught everyone from Martin Luther King Jr. to Barbara Jordan.
If the church doesn’t appeal a ruling that allows the seizure of the 1,600-acre ranch in Eldorado, it could become property of the state. What will Texas do with the infamous compound?
What's a better gift than Christmas-morning kolaches? Christmas kolaches ordered from West, Texas.
The Tall City gets taller.
When flames erupted at the West Fertilizer Company plant, the members of the local volunteer fire department pulled on their bunker gear and jumped in their trucks, just like they always do.
When the local vernacular dies, what goes with it?
Once a year, a San Antonio congregation relives Jesus’ last days—and leaves the cellphones at home.
West, Texas, has two florists, but the fertilizer plant explosions forced one to temporarily shut down its business. That left Divine Designs responsible for creating sympathy arrangements for six funerals in one week.
You can’t go home and tell your friends that you came to Central Texas and never ate any barbecue. It would be like going to SXSW and not listening to any music. But there are so many briskets and so little time! How do you sort it all out? No
Learning to love the foreign, overcharged, crowded, obsessive, and actually pretty exciting world of Texas’s newest major sport.
What will happen to the fundamentalist Mormon compound?
The famous astronaut was notoriously shy about granting interviews to the press, but in 2009 he answered a few questions sent to him by senior editor Katy Vine. Here is her unedited Q&A with Neil Armstrong.
Are the kids at the Yearning for Zion safe?
Jurors found former polygamist leader Wendell Loy Nielsen guilty of bigamy for illegally marrying three women.
Texas Monthly senior editor Katy Vine shares a few stories from one of her favorite writers of the year.
I was thrilled when my daughter began learning a second language at day care. But what was I supposed to do when my three-year-old started engaging in conversations I couldn’t understand?
Austin Mahone is sixteen years old. He doesn’t have a record contract, a tour bus, or a backing band. But he does have more than 650,000 followers on Twitter and the email addresses of 2,000,000 fans. Meet San Antonio’s answer to Justin Bieber.
ROUTE: Port Arthur to Port AransasDISTANCE: 308 milesNUMBER OF COUNTIES: 11WHAT TO BRING: A pair of binocularsI started as far east as you can go on the Gulf Coast and still be in Texas. And since the Sabine Pass Lighthouse, which is technically across the state line in Louisiana, is
John Mueller was the heir to one of the great Texas barbecue dynasties. Aaron Franklin was an unknown kid from College Station who worked his counter. John had it all and then threw it all away. Aaron came out of nowhere to create the state’s most coveted brisket. Then John
A tribute.
Dispatches from the Warren Jeffs trial in San Angelo.
Victor Emanuel can find you a hooded warbler, a horned guan, or maybe even an Eskimo curlew. But his real genius is that he can get you to really look at a grackle.
Assistant Editor Katy Vine tells us what he said.
On March 18, 1937, the residents of New London, southeast of Tyler, endured the worst small-town tragedy in U.S. history: an explosion at the combined junior-senior high school that killed some three hundred students and teachers.
Although some might consider the Kilgore Rangerettes an anachronism, every summer dozens of fresh-faced teens from around the state flock to East Texas to perfect a seemingly effortless hat-brim-touching high kick—and preserve one of the state’s great traditions.
When Jacob Isom swiped a Quran from an angry evangelist, he figured a few of his friends would enjoy the prank. Two months and one million YouTube views later, his life may never be the same.
San Antonio's Marshevet Hooker is not just any old high school sprinter; she's an Olympic gold medalist in the making. Meet her and nine other women we're betting will lead the new Texas—and the world.
Jamie Foxx pulls no punches.
And not just any mall. The Marq*E Entertainment Center is a marvel of marketing: a teen-friendly hangout where kids from all over the city flock to shop, flirt, skateboard, and otherwise act their age.
Katie Wernecke is many things: a precocious, freckle-faced Bible-drill champ; the valedictorian of her seventh-grade class in Banquete; and—since she was diagnosed with cancer last year—a pawn in the custody battle that pits her parents against the State of Texas.
Quitman